IT spend will reach $3.7 trillion in 2018

Global spending on IT is expected to grow 4.3 percent next year, according to new estimates from market analyst Gartner.

Gartner says spending is expected to hit $3.7 trillion next year, up from $3.5 trillion. The growth will be fueled mostly by communications services, followed by software spending which will see an increase of 9.4 percent next year, to a total of $387 billion.

This year, it grew 8.5 percent. Spending on IT services will grow four percent this year, to $931 billion, and more next year -- 5.3 percent, up to $980 billion.

What’s also interesting is that Gartner predicts growth in the devices segment, something we haven’t seen in the last two years. This segment will see a 5.3 percent growth this year, and a five percent growth next year.

"Increased average selling prices for premium phones in mature markets, partially due to the introduction of the iPhone 8 and 10, along with an underlying demand for PCs from businesses replacing their machines with Windows 10 PCs is driving the growth in this segment," the report states.

"Looking at market opportunity -- how profitable a market is, how big it is and how fast is it growing today and for the next five years -- we have identified the top markets that companies should be looking to be part of in 2018," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "Global IT spending is showing little overall growth, as are traditional markets. These top 10 markets will be the key to remaining relevant and achieving growth in the future."

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